ThinkProgress: Boehner Will Sue Obama For Stuff He Thought Was Totally Fine Under George W. Bush

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) confirmed Wednesday that he will file a federal lawsuit challenging the executive actions of President Barack Obama, despite supporting President George W. Bush’s extensive use of executive authority. … President Obama has issued about 180 executive orders — a power that has been utilized by every president since George Washington except for the brief-tenured William Henry Harrison …. But Boehner embraced the power of a Republican president to take action, even at times when he would circumvent Congress by doing so… … As of February, Obama had issued fewer executive orders than all but one of the other presidents since World War II.

I can think of some dangerous moves Boehner has made since becoming Speaker, including threatening to trash the full faith and credit of the United States on purpose. I can also think of some reckless moves he’s made, including shutting down the government. I can even think of some irresponsible moves from the Speaker, including refusing to compromise on pretty much any area of public policy. But I can’t think of anything quite as dumb from the last several years as this lawsuit.

Indeed, the Speaker himself couldn’t actually identify by name anything the president has done that warrants a legal challenge. Boehner is outraged by Obama’s use of executive power. And what, pray tell, has offended the Speaker? He didn’t say. I’m sure he’ll think of something to justify his lawsuit eventually, right? … It’s an embarrassment to the institution and the nation, but at this point, that simply means more of the same.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki of Iraq has told the BBC he supports an air strike on Islamist militants at a border crossing between Iraq and Syria. Military and rebel sources say the strike took place inside Iraq, at the Qaim crossing, although Mr Maliki said it was carried out on the Syrian side. Isis and its Sunni Muslim allies seized large parts of Iraq this month. The government has struggled to hold back the militants’ advance from the north and west. It has also been receiving support from Iran, with whom its Shia Muslim leaders have close links. The Syrian air strikes show how the conflicts in Syria and Iraq are merging together, with Isis as a common factor. Once-rival fighters on the Syrian side of the border at Qaim have now pledged allegiance to Isis, giving it control of both sides.

If US drones are not yet involved, they soon could be, illustrating how the threat posed by Isis is creating a convergence of interests between players who so far have been adversaries. That goes for Iran, too, which is deeply concerned about the sudden upheavals in Iraq. It has reinforced its positions along its own western border, where guards have been killed in an attack. There are reports that Iran has been heavily shelling border areas in the Kurdish mountains, where an Iranian Kurdish opposition group called Pejak has bases. The US, which also backs the government, has stressed that the militants can only be defeated by Iraq’s own forces. Mr Maliki is seeking to form a new government but has rejected calls to create an emergency coalition which would include all religious and ethnic groups.

Let us compare what Boehner says the president has done — which, by the way, he has done less than almost all of his immediate predecessors — and then let’s compare everything his House hasn’t done because it doesn’t like the president, his party, his politics, or (sadly) his race. Let us determine who is “faithfully executing” the jobs for which they all get paid.

Hell, let us determine who’s actually interested in governing the country, or is counsel for the plaintiff going to argue that, if the country elects a obstructionist Congress, and that Congress holds together, then the country need not necessarily be governed by anyone at all? That would be an interesting point to be litigated – if, again, this were a serious legal action, and not the latest and most elaborate clown show staged by a threadbare political circus.

Ikea plans to adopt a wage structure that it says will raise the average hourly minimum wage at its 38 stores in the United States to $10.76 an hour — a 17 percent increase. Ikea, which will be announcing its new wage policy on Thursday, said it would not impose an across-the-board minimum wage for its stores, but would instead set a minimum for each store based on the cost of living in that particular area. For example, the minimum wage will run from a low of $8.69 an hour at its stores in Pittsburgh and West Chester, Ohio, to $13.22 an hour at its store in Woodbridge, Va.

Ikea said that its new average minimum wage, $10.76 an hour, was $3.51 above the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. The retailer’s decision was made as many low-wage workers and labor unions are pushing for an increase in the federal minimum wage and after Gap Inc. informed its employees in February that it would set $9 as the minimum hourly rate for its United States work force this year and then establish a minimum of $10 next year.

John Boehner has decided to formalize his hissy fit in the form of a lawsuit against the President for acting on behalf of the American people by the means of administrative and executive authority, given the GOP’s absolute resolve to allow Congress to do nothing. I could walk you through the mind-numbingly boring and utterly clueless memo Boehner wrote to the House, but the gist of it is this: We, the GOP House will not do any work, and we will not let anyone else do any either.

The lawsuit, needless to say, is wholly without merit. So much so that Boehner’s own memo did not name a single executive action he believes violates or ovesteps the president’s Constitutional authority. Of course, sources say he will tell them later. I suppose the irony of asking his chamber to approve unchecked authority for him to pick and choose whatever he wants to sue the president Obama while complaining that Obama has acted in a “king-like” fashion is completely lost on the Speaker.

The Nation: The Media’s Disappearing Of Syria’s Chemical Weapons Program And Why It Matters

In Syria, the Obama administration just achieved an unprecedented foreign policy success in WMD nonproliferation, but you likely didn’t hear about it. Nine months after entering into joint negotiation with the Russians and Syria’s tyrannical President Bashar al-Assad, the last of that country’s 1,300 tons of declared chemical weapons began a journey to a chemical weapons-eating ship in the Mediterranean for destruction by the US.

The mission to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons programme has been a major undertaking marked by an extraordinary international cooperation. Never before has an entire arsenal of a category of weapons of mass destruction been removed from a country experiencing a state of internal armed conflict. And this has been accomplished within very demanding and tight timeframes. This successful dismantling of Syria’s chemical weapons program by the US has been matched by an almost as successful disappearing of the news of it by the Beltway media, however.

Adam Chandler: Army Clears Bergdahl Of Any Misconduct During Captivity

As the Army continues to investigate whether Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is guilty of deserting his unit, this afternoon they said there is no reason to believe that Bergdahl engaged in any misconduct during his five years in captivity. In fact, that’s all that the Army said: We have no reason to believe that he engaged in any misconduct.”

Bergdahl electrified the national discourse last month after he was freed in a prisoner swap involving five members of the Taliban held at Guantanamo Bay. As charges against his character emerged, the narrative quickly shifted from Bergdahl as POW to Bergdahl as despicable deserter, unworthy bargaining chip, unwitting endangerer of America, and worse.

The People’s View: The Message from Mississippi: Democrats are Not Sitting it Out This Year

Last night marked the second high-stakes GOP primary where Democrats have screwed up the pollsters’ math. In Virginia’s 7th district, where knocking off an entrenched Republican incumbent in the primary would actually give the Democrat in the race a shot against a nutjob Teabagger, they knocked off Eric Cantor. Now in Mississippi, where a Democrat has a smaller chance of winning the Senate seat than a hailstorm in hell, Democrats – black Democrats – mowed down the Tea Party scourge like it’s nobody’s business.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that Utah’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional, becoming the first appellate court in the country to find a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry.

“We hold that the Fourteenth Amendment protects the fundamental right to marry, establish a family, raise children, and enjoy the full protection of a state’s marital laws,” Judge Carlos F. Lucero wrote in the decision for a three-judge panel. “A state may not deny the issuance of a marriage license to two persons, or refuse to recognize their marriage, based solely upon the sex of the persons in the marriage union.”

Pew: After Decades Of Gop Support, Cubans Shifting Toward The Democratic Party

Cubans in the U.S. have long identified with or leaned toward the Republican Party, even as Hispanics overall have tilted Democrat. But the party affiliation of Cubans has undergone a shift over the past decade, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of survey data.

Less than half (47%) of Cuban registered voters nationwide now say they identify with or lean toward the Republican Party—down from the 64% who said the same about the GOP a decade ago, according to 2013 survey data. Meanwhile, the share of Cubans who identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party has doubled from 22% to 44% over the same time period, according to the survey of Hispanics.

Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown cruised past his two rivals in Maryland’s bitter Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday, setting up a November contest with GOP nominee Larry Hogan, a Cabinet secretary under the state’s last Republican chief executive. Brown would be Maryland’s first African American governor and only the third elected in the nation….

After going out on a not-so-wobbly limb to suggest that Republicans would push to impeach President Obama if they succeeded in retaking the Senate, George Will’s Sunday column read like a real threat. Fed up with what he views as Obama’s “offenses against the separation of powers,” the conservative columnist advocated that Congress sue the executive branch to stop a lawless president. Yesterday, Speaker John Boehner told the House Republican caucus that he was contemplating such a step.

The plan all along has been to crash the Obama agenda and then climb on top of the wreckage and seize power. Not only are Republicans complicit in the “failures” they rail against, but they are also the reason the president has had to resort to executive action to get some things done. Even Will agrees Obama is within his authority to do this. He just doesn’t like the degree to which he has done it. Poor dear.

On This Day

President Obama jokingly reacts to news that staffer Nora Becker will be leaving to pursue a joint MD and PhD in healthcare economics, during the White House staff picnic on the South Lawn, June 26, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama holds a football while taking a phone call in the Oval Office, June 26, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama tosses a football with Trip Director Marvin Nicholson in the outer Oval Office on June 26, 2009. Personal Secretary Katie Johnson watches from her desk (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama stands in the Oval Office with a Hawaiian paddle that was given to him as a gift by chef Allen Wong, who catered the 2009 Presidential Luau, June 26, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama greets Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany at the front door of the Oval Office, June 26, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)

****

President Obama greets South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak during their bilateral meeting at the G20 Summit in Toronto, Canada, Saturday, June 26, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron prepare to board Marine One at the Deerhurst Resort landing zone in Muskoka, Canada, following the conclusion of the G8 Summit, June 26, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

Mornin’, NW! What’s sickening about the first part of the NYT story is that $10.76 is considered a “jump” and what’s more sickening is that the jump is 17 percent more than Ikea was paying. And now they want a big hug (hey, I do give them credit for jumping on the new bandwagon). We Americans are a bunch of sheep to put up with all this, for so long, so that the profiteers can profit. Through President Obama, we have finally found our collective voices. We are the ones …

I woke up early this morning thinking about the horrible John Boehner and how I despise him. How I despise all these Republicans. How I hate what they are trying to do to our country. I know I cannot live like that for the next months, so will do positive actions to get rid of these people. But, just had to get that off my chest.

Others of you have probably read, like I have, of how absolutely horrifying it is to see the death of a bull elephant after he has been shot. I have read it is the most agonizing, slow, awful death imaginable. I think this is what we are seeing right now. The white male hegemony in Congress absolutely could not accept that a man of mixed heritage could occupy the White House. As we know, they started plotting on Inauguration Day 2009 to bring about his demise. When he was re-elected, they were even angrier. The people do not want one of them to be president, so they will subvert the will of the people, using any nefarious scheme they can think of. They see the writing on the wall for the white male dominance, and will fight to their deaths to maintain their “superiority.”

Just look at the racism this President have had to deal with, there s no question that the disrespect, the ugliness, the hatred, he has had to deal with comes from white people who can’t handle the fact that a black man is in their White House, leader of their country. The Supreme Court does not have to deal with that question Jovie.

I know you’re not talking about all white people anniebella. I’m an old white woman and know the prejudices of old white people very well.

What encourages me is that I teach YOUNG people, and they do not see color……My students come in all shades, from as pale as I am through every shade of coffee with cream to coffee with no cream. I love this younger generation, and they are why I have hope and confidence.

Old white men, and some women, see life moving forward, and they want to stop the clock. It won’t happen…….the world has never stayed in one place. One reason I love this place so much is because I have learned so much from people like you.

Here’s the latest from SCOTUS blog. It involves President Obama’s recess appointment powers.

The opinion of the Court affirms the D.C. Circuit. The Recess appointments clause empowers the president to fill any existing vacancy during any recess (intra-session or inter-session) of sufficient length. This is a narrow ruling. It gives the President substantial recess appointment power. It says the only problem with the appointments was that the President had to respect the Senate’s pro forma recesses. The opinion goes on to say that the clause does not say how long the recess must be to fall within the clause, but even the Solicitor General concedes that a 3-day recess would be too short. The Court specifically holds that the President can fill any existing vacancy during any intra or inter-session recess. These recess appointments apparently were not valid because they were made during a three-day recess. The court also holds that the recess does not have to occur during the recess .The decision appears to be unanimous on the judgment, but Scalia files an opinion concurring in the judgment, joined by Roberts, Thomas, and Alito. – See more at: http://live.scotusblog.com/Event/Live_blog_of_opinions__June_26_2014#sthash.psnTbDvI.dpuf

Here is the upshot of the decision. The President can make a recess appointment without Senate confirmation when the Senate says it is in recess. But either the House or the Senate can take the Senate out of recess and force it to hold a “pro forma session” that will block any recess appointment. So while the President’s recess appointment power is broad in theory, if either house of Congress is in the hands of the other party, it can be blocked. – See more at: http://live.scotusblog.com/Event/Live_blog_of_opinions__June_26_2014#sthash.psnTbDvI.dpuf

I’ve noticed one thing on msnbc… Almost Every show pushes Gay rights. Except morning Joe and chuck.
Otherwise, morning, noon and night, every day, whenever I turn it on, it’s being pushed.
It’s interesting. Maybe somebody high up in comcast is Gay?
Just sayin.

The way that CBS radio news reported this decision this morning was that SCOTUS affirmed the President’s recess appointment authority, so all is good, especially with #LandslideDems2014.

Also wanted to thank you for posting my tweet a couple of days ago, re: counties and cities rehiring now, after the devastating cutbacks they needed to do after the 2008 financial meltdown — but payroll costs are still down from pre-2009 levels, so a win-win for everyone. Woot!

Decision of the First Circuit is reversed. The Court is unanimous; Scalia concurs in judgment, joined by Kennedy and Thomas; Alito concurs in the judgment in his own opinion. The Court holds that the Massachusetts law violates the First Amendment. This is a law that imposes a thirty-five-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics. The opinion appears to be mainly focused on the fact that the buffer zone includes public ways and sidewalks. – See more at: http://live.scotusblog.com/Event/Live_blog_of_opinions__June_26_2014#sthash.psnTbDvI.dpuf

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that House Speaker John Boehner’s planned lawsuit against President Obama for his use of executive action is a “higher gear” of GOP obstructionism than previously seen.

“For a long time, we’ve seen Republicans block progress in Congress,” Earnest said when asked about the lawsuit at the daily White House press briefing. “But in this case, it seems that Republicans have shifted their opposition into a higher gear. It’s a gear that I previously didn’t know existed.”

It’s nuts. I’ve seen what protesters do to women seeking abortions at clinics. It is not “hey, nice to meet you. Let me tell you why I disagree with you.” It is hurling insults at them, shaming them, sometimes pushing them and tossing things at them. It is horrific and SCOTUS pretty much patted them on the head and legitimized them.

The upshot of today’s ruling is that an abortion clinic buffer zone is presumptively unconstitutional. Instead, a state has to more narrowly target clinic obstructions. For example, the police can tell protesters to move aside to let a woman through to the clinic. But it cannot prohibit protesters from being on the sidewalks in the first instance. If in practice protesters still are obstructing the entrance, then it can consider a broader restriction. – See more at: http://live.scotusblog.com/Event/Live_blog_of_opinions__June_26_2014#sthash.psnTbDvI.dpuf

The site of today’s scheduled US-Germany World Cup match, Recife, Brazil, has been pounded by a large rainstorm that has dropped at least 3 inches of rain on the city. Per the Washington Post: FIFA officials were expected to step onto the pitch later this morning to determine just how much water is standing and whether the match, scheduled to begin at noon EDT, can be played. It stands to reason that the pitch will be just fine, with far better drainage in place….. http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/soccer/2014/06/26/could-us-germany-world-cup-match-be-postponed/11397177/

Agent @RichardMotzkin tells ESPN US team family and friends have decided not to attempt trip to stadium. Too treacherous.

Nope. Still hypocritical. You cannot compare the size of the SCOTUS and a small clinic where women have abortions, get birth control pills, etc. and then say these extreme protesters are “petitioners” just wanting to spread caring messages. The 35ft buffer zone is reasonable because it does not place the women and the protesters in dangerous positions. Everyone has their clear lane.

If SCOTUS considers these venomous protesters “petitioners,” how about allowing a variety of these “petitioners” swarm the Justices daily and show them how caring they are.

Beyond the simple fact that the political elite and the national culture were male-dominated, these regimes inevitably viewed women as second-class citizens. They were adamantly anti-abortion and also homophobic. These attitudes were usually codified in Draconian laws that enjoyed strong support by the orthodox religion of the country, thus lending the regime cover for its abuses.